We went to war. While I find myself uneasy with that concept, I know it is unavoidable. They attacked us in a most heinous manner, the American spirit calls for nothing less than retaliation. We can only hope that innocent people aren’t killed, that collateral damage is minimal, that relations with allies and would-be enemies don’t worsen, and that the terrorist response is stopped before more people are killed. War is not easy.

What I don’t completely understand are the protesters. Today a crowd several hundred strong marched outside a federal building in downtown Minneapolis. Half a dozen police officers from the station across the street watched over the demonstrations, and behind the rally I saw a few official looking guys in “Police: Federal Protective Services” jackets. I’m not familiar with that federal agency. The protesters wanted their voice to be heard, they wanted the media and the public to know that not everyone agrees with war. According to an ABC news poll, they must be the 6% of the population that disagrees with the U.S. action.

They carried signs that said “No Racism! No War!” and “An Eye For An Eye Makes a World Blind!” I sympathize with their situation. War is not easy. But I don’t understand their position. President Bush made it clear that this is not a war on Islam or the Afghani people. It is a war on terrorism. Our targeted attacks make that clear. Last night we launched only 50 cruise missiles. Several years ago when we attacked Bin Laden for bombing embassies in Africa, we used several hundred cruise missiles. Are the protesters agreeing with Bush and reinforcing his statement, or do they think Bush is lying?

And ‘an eye for an eye’ may not be the best policy. But then what do you do? One college student I talked to said that attacking the terrorists will only cause more terror. Then what do we do? Won’t hunting them down and bringing them to trial cause just as much terror? And we can’t exactly bring them to trial when the Taliban won’t cooperate. I find myself torn between the kind of peace Jesus modeled, and the practicality that a nation must defend itself.

How do we protect the poor, the fatherless, and the alien when we have no muscle to fight the very things that endanger those we wish to protect?

I do find it a consolation, if a blatant contradiction, that we are dropping humanitarian aid as well as bombs. If we were warring against the Afghani people, why would we be feeding them? This is a compassionate gesture, from a nation that’s good at hating our enemies.

I also find myself worrying about the Muslim backlash. Bush made it clear that this is not a war on Islam. Bin Laden made it clear that this is a war of Muslims vs. Christians. Who do you believe? Protesters in Pakistan seemed to side with Bin Laden as they burned buildings and rioted. The danger is that Muslims everywhere will side with Bin Laden and rise up against the U.S. I don’t think it’s likely, but the repercussions wouldn’t be pretty.

The whole thing isn’t helped by the fact that a piece of wreckage was pulled from the World Trade Center site in the shape of a perfect cross. It was erected on the site and officially blessed. This only reinforces the image of Christianity vs. Islam. A concept that is completely untrue. We are not a Christian nation. We are a nation of free religious expression. We are a nation of Christians, yes, but also of Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and more religions than you can count. It seems to me that encouraging crackpot ideas like Bin Laden’s holy war will only make this more difficult.

It was only a matter of time. We all knew it was coming. The sad thing is I’m talking about the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan today, and I could also be talking about the next terrorist attack on the U.S. It’s a crazy world we live in.

Bin Laden claims it’s a war of Christians versus Muslims. I wish he knew how wrong he was. He sees this as a great Christian nation of infidels, trying to overthrow the Muslims. If only he knew that the golden arches were the sacred symbol of America, and not the cross. If only he’d watch prime time TV, he’d know this is not a Christian nation.

But he can’t really be that stupid, can he? Or is it deeper than that? Is it a war against freedom? Does he simply want power and sees our democracy and our religious freedom as an impediment to his power? Maybe the guy’s just whacked.

This certainly isn’t a perfect nation. We stole the land from people who were here first, people who understood the land and treated it with respect. But we did rise up against oppressors at one time, we did fight for a noble cause and won our liberty. That certainly means something. It seems that again we must rise up against oppressors and defend our freedom. Unfortunately this time the oppressors are almost unseen, and they hide among us. Who knows how it will all come out. Nation will rise against nation, blood will be shed, and God will wring his hands and sob.

Who holds your freedom? Who holds your liberty?
Who holds you freedom? Who holds you liberty?

It cannot mean to serve ourselves / That doesn’t mean a thing / It doesn’t mean to give the license / to seek ourselves in anything. / That would be slavery to ourselves, / It isn’t free / Jesus Christ, the only thing that freedom means to me.
(Five Iron Frenzy – ‘Anthem’)

We are a generation that hasn’t known hardship. We don’t know what war really is. War is something you see in the movies, Oliver Stone or Francis Ford Copula. “The horror, the horror.”

We’re the G.I. Joe generation. And not the Barbie-size “action figures” with kung-fu grip. I’m talking about the 3 3/4 inch army men and the cartoon show of the 1980s. I’m talking about Cobra and shouts of “Go Joe!” and battle scenes where no one ever gets injured and the bad guys jump out of their vehicles before they blow up. When planes go down pilots eject and everyone’s safe at the end of the day. A G.I. Joe battle is the only one with zero casualties.

We’re the generation that watched the Gulf War on TV and realized that it was just like our video games. It was the first war we ever saw, and it was virtually painless, virtually bloodless. It was over before it started.

Vietnam was well before our time. That was another era, another generation’s nightmare and rallying call. The pain and frustration of that war looms over us only as a reminder to not get involved in other people’s disputes.

We are the generation that sees the armed forces as a source of free socks, the military as a way to pay for college. We are the generation that would follow the example set before us and burn draft cards before being forced to fight.

All of that changed last Tuesday. I’ve never heard so many people express interest in enlisting in the military. And it’s interesting to consider who will be fighting this war. The kids brandishing the M-16s and driving the Bradleys grew up playing with G.I. Joes. It’s interesting to note that G.I. Joe was a special force formed to fight the terrorist group, Cobra, a countryless group whose only goal was terror.

Unfortunately, in the G.I. Joe world the Cobras were always distinguishable by a big Cobra symbol on their chest. In the G.I. Joe world no one died in the battles and the good guys always won. In the G.I. Joe world there was no World Trade Center or Pentagon attack.

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.'” (Romans 12: 18-20, NIV)

Some days I scratch my head. Why did no one tell me the truth? Why does no one admit things are really way more complicated than they appear? Why is everything whitewashed? Why are little boys allowed to play with guns and soldiers? Soldiers and guns and bombs and tanks and planes kill people. Bullets rip through flesh and fathers fall to their knees, gasping for air. Bombs rip through ceilings, sending shrapnel, concrete, and flames onto unsuspecting families.

Is it in the name of democracy? Is it in the name of justice? Is it in the name of freedom? Freedom rings hollow if it is gained by the shedding of innocent blood. Perhaps there is a time and place for all things, but we have become all too familiar with bloodshed. All too efficient.

We are too comfortable with violence. We like to watch explosions and rifle fire on the television screen, where the good guys and bad guys are so easily identified. But it doesn’t work like that in reality. The “good” guy has a month old daughter and a wife at home. So does the “bad” guy.

Some days I wonder what it would be like if war broke out on American soil. I’m no historian, but I don’t think it’s happened since the Civil War–with the exception of Pearl Harbor. I wonder if the terror, the violence, and the bloodshed would be enough to bring us back to our senses. When soldiers fight in our very own streets and we realize they’re not our well-trained killing machines, they’re our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. When bullets crack our windows and a smart bomb turns our house and our family into collateral damage, then perhaps we’ll realize what an ugly thing war is.

Maybe then we won’t give our children toy guns and toy soldiers. Maybe then we won’t let them play death. Maybe then we’ll have a greater understanding of peace and brotherhood. Maybe then we can let the hatred melt away, let the stereotypes fall, let our own selfishness and self-righteousness disappear. We are a broken people. We always have been–it’s just we’ve never known it.

To what extend should the United States be policing the world? It strikes me that Christians rarely consider this issue, and rarely include it in their political choices. Some think the U.S. should intervene in humanitarian crisis’s, others think intervention is only acceptable when U.S. interests are at stake. Others stress the need for well defined goals and time tables: We’ll keep the peace, but only for so long. No one wants another Vietnam War to show us how fallible our military is. Should we be policing the world? If so, who are we to decide what situations require policing and which don’t? How do we be impartial police keeping force? We’ve basically assumed the right to drop bombs on Iraq, regardless of the civilian casualties and civil chaos it causes. Who’s going to police the police keeping force?

Continue reading Policing the World →

I remember sitting on the edge of the couch watching the exchange of gunfire. I was in sixth grade when the United States lead the Coalition Forces against Iraq. My mom, my brother, and I had just returned home from Wednesday night church. Dad sat in the burnt orange arm chair, watching a man in uniform address the nation.

“What’s on, Dad?” We usually made it home in time to catch the end of Roseanne.

“Quiet,” he commanded. And so we stood there, halfway between setting our stuff down and putting our coats away, and watched the man in uniform. Under the cover of night the strike began. Bombs and missiles were raining down on Baghdad. Tracers from the anti-aircraft guns lit up the infrared TV cameras with a green glow.

After a few minutes we stopped standing there and sat down, letting everything else go unfinished. I didn’t put my Bible or my coat away. I didn’t make my lunch for school the next day. I didn’t even take my nightly shower. I just sat there on the end of the couch–the usual place I had to claim when my whole family watched TV. Part of me was intrigued. This was every G.I. Joe battle I ever imagined right in front of me. And that also scared me. This was for real. Those bombs and explosions meant concrete crumbling, children crying, people dying. I couldn’t sit there and smile that Saddam was finally getting his. I could only sit there with a grim expression, unsure of what to think. War isn’t something you process in sixth grade. Unfortunately, it’s not something men in uniform–who have long since left the sixth grade–process either.